Area of USA

[JHolland]

I have heard that the area of the USA excluding Alaska is less than the area of sub-saharan Africa. Is this true and what are the figures?

[kempie]

The entire land area of the USA is approximately 3.6 million sq. miles. Alaska has an area approx. 0.6 million sq. miles thus giving you a first figure of ~3m sq. miles. 

The entire land area of Africa is ~11.7m sq. miles. The Sahara covers ~25% of Africa so if we conservatively estimate sub-Saharan Africa as 60% of the total landmass we get a figure of ~7m sq. miles.

Even if you include Alaska the USA is only half the size of sub-Saharan Africa. This is also true of the population:
Sub-Sahara = ~700m people ...  USA = ~300m people

[Clanad]

Total square mile in "lower 48" excluding Alaska and Hawaii, is 3,119,819.  Total area of sub-Saharan Africa is 2455m ha or 9,478,764.48... if my calculations are correct...

[Clanad]

Ooops kempie, great minds and all that...